Realistic Speed Racer Mach V

The upcoming Spirit of Speed model show at the NHRA museum this November has a Movie/TV theme class, so it inspired me to throw something together. I’m going to do a “What if Speed Racer’s Mach V was a real car?” So I am converting the Polar Lights kit to a realistic period-inspired race car.

I’ll be borrowing style elements from Shelby Cobra, Ford GT40, and Lola T70 references from about the time the cartoon was first out.

First thing I did was flip the headlights over, and open up the rear wheel wells to fit a set of GT40 wheels from Historic Racing Miniatures I got from my good friend Randy at www.modelbuilderswh.com.

Got some putty on it.
First Draft of the body work with the first of many coats of primer. A lot to fix, but it's a good start! I deleted the big fins, since I really want this to look like it is a real race car, and the fins were too over the top for that, I thought.

I narrowed up the rear wheels and flares a bit, lined in a hood and added a hood scoop, and made some side pipes from a set of headers from the Owens Corning Corvette kit. I also made a driver's seat from a Tamiya Porsche glue bomb I had.
I have decided to go a different direction from the roll bar shown here, but I will have it on the next update. Thanks for looking!

This is something I've often thought about starting - and I can't think of anyone better to take it on! It's also interesting to note the difference in timeline/perspective that each modeler will bring to a project. Speed Racer (or Mach GoGoGo) was first introduced in 1966, by which time details such as you have included (wider tires, flares, braced roll bar, GT40 style wheels) would have been very much the standard of the age. But in the comic and cartoons the cars are kind of a throwback, something of an exaggerated, stylized version of late 50's pontoon-fendered front engine road racers along the lines of Ferrari TRs and Listers or, more specifically, the Sadler Mk. II and the Corvette SS. So when I have thought about doing one I have thought of doing it with narrower tires, no flares, and minimalist rollover protection. One thing for sure, flipping the headlight position is genius in its simplicity - one of those breakthrough insights that has never occurred to me but is "obvious" once its shown to you! Bravo!

Build On, Art!

PS One thought I had regarding doing it in an earlier style was to do one inspired but the great Stan Mott Pignatelli, cashing in on the already over-the-top body shape...

Thanks for the comments. Like you, I originally envisioned a more late 50's style racer, like the Ferrari you mentioned. I had some Halibrand wheels that would have fit the job perfectly, but I didn't have tires readily available/ But the GT40 wheels were right there, so that's what I decided to use. Once that course was set, I had in my mind to make it rear-engined, which it supposedly is in the cartoon, but with a V8 instead of whatever magical powerplant Pops Racer installed. :) So a lot of what I wanted to borrow would have been from like a Lola T70, or like machinery. One problem, though, is that the Polar Lights proportions just weren't going to accommodate that in any realistic fashion. So I had to make it front-engined. In keeping with the era, I decided to borrow from the 427 Cobra a little to fit the vision.

I like the idea you had with the car pictured. That would be a fun project, too. Get on it!

I "tinned" the interior with aluminum sheet, and I had some seat belts already made for another project that ended up not using, so they were a nice, quick addition. The dash gauges came from another project too, that I actually lost during that build and had to remake, so now that I found them, figured they would work on this.

In the homestretch now, trying to finish it up for the show tomorrow at the NHRA Museum. The body is cleared and polished out (actually polished down, so it's not too glossy), I made a steering wheel, mostly scratched except the ring itself is the kit wheel, and completed the interior, complete with fire extinguisher from a NASCAR kit.
These Pro Tech nuts are invaluable. You can get them at ScaleProShop.com.
Thanks for looking!

Ima Lika what you is doing ta da Cah ! LOL.LOL. You are doing something different and awesome . I will follow this with clean glasses . I don't wanna miss nuttin !

An adenda . WoW WOW WOW!!!! Very inventive an great model . Now , I look at the rear behind the seat and I can Vusualize a Porche 911 powerplant in there . Worked over of course ! The rear of the body would open like a tip front except it would be Of Course a tilt rear !